31 January 2014 | Tennis Queensland

Queensland conference winners of the Asia-Pacific Tennis League (ATL) the Brisbane Chargers and the Shaw Park Sharks travelled to Melbourne for the ATL Playoffs and their performance made unprecedented inroads closer to the title.

Representing the state were the Brisbane Chargers men and the Shaw Park Sharks women, who finished second and fifth respectively.

Most notably the Brisbane Chargers took the court against Victorian conference champions the Kooyong Classics in the men’s semi-final. After four singles matches the teams were evenly matched as they both took two rubbers respectively.

The victory Chargers stalwart Robert Smeets had over Classics top 50 ATP doubles player John Peers proved to be a pivotal rubber when he snuck through 4-0 0-4 4-3.

With the Chargers up by just one set heading into the doubles they knew a straight sets victory would be enough to clinch the tie and Gavin Van Peperzeel and Joel Lindner didn’t disappoint, as they defeated Classics captain David Bidmeade and Daniel Byrnes to secure the tie by the smallest of margins after rubbers were locked at three a piece.

The Shaw Park Sharks women shook off their narrow defeat from last year’s national champions the Flagstaff Freighters by taking down Western Australia’s conference champions the Midland Mad Dogs.

Even without their three star juniors who were competing in the Australian Open Juniors event they, managed a comfortable five rubbers to one win which placed them in the 5th position.

Sharks captain Ashling Sumner was buoyed with this years performance as they improved on their seventh placing at last year’s national finals.

The Chargers men took the court for the international final against a very tough New Zealand Kauri team that had earlier defeated top seeded team Japan Life NP Phoenix four rubbers to two.

Entering as underdogs the Chargers the singles again proved to be tight as both teams won two rubbers each.

Dependable Gavin Van Peperzeel secured a substantial lead in the games for the lead up of the doubles matches with a 4-1 4-1 victory over Kauri captain Finn Tearney.

The fairytale ending was not to be however, as the Kauri’s proved to be too strong when they took both doubles rubbers to take the tie and the title four rubbers to two.

Two ties in one day seemed to drain the senior Chargers players as they were clearly hurting after the final.

Nevertheless the Sharks and the Chargers displayed the desperation to succeed and after the Queensland men finished third and women seventh last time around, second and fifth respectively is an improved effort all round.

With the addition of spiritual leader John Millman to the team in 2014 it may be a case of third time lucky for the Chargers at next year’s national finals.